[gregfisk]

Now that's a nice size room to work with enormous possibility. If only we all had such space. I'm stuck with a smallish nonlinear room with 7 walls.

If you don't mind, how much space is there between your speakers and how far back are you sitting from them?

My speakers are 4 ft. from the side walls, 6' from the front wall with 11' between them and to my listening position. This is why I think moving the speakers closer to the listening position and the side walls would help a lot. Then play with toe in a bit and see what happens. I did notice a very pronounced difference when I put 6" GIK absorption panels at the first reflection points. I also put panels from the floor to 8' high in the front corners which smoothed out the room even more.

Greg

[Hipper]

As some have said, try positioning first to get the best possible sound before trying room treatments. I followed this advice - 'The Thirds':

http://www.barrydiamentaudio.com/monitoring.htm

I now get an image that circles round the speakers. The vocals are well centred but behind the speakers, and the image does not extend beyond the speakers but seems nicely balanced and detailed. I use conventional box type speakers.

I've only read about open baffle speakers but I understand in terms of sound distribution around the room they behave differently to my box speakers. If that's true I cannot offer advice on room treatments and you should make clear to any adviser about your type of speaker. Most advice on the internet seems geared conventional speakers.

This link maybe useful:

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/studio-building-acoustics/610173-acoustics-treatment-reference-guide-look-here.html

[rockdrummer]

Thanks again for everyone's help and advice. 

For starters, I moved some components to get a little more slack in my sub intereconnects.  That let me bring the mains out to about 65 inches from the front wall.  I'm about 25 inches from the side walls, with a little toe in, and testing different distances there.  There certainly was some improvement when I added, well, it was over a foot, of distance from the front.  I really like the sound of the vocals, round and full, but now a bit more precise, which I like.

I'm going to continue with some more placement.  I may end up having to bite the bullet and order longer rca's.  I have a split from the source, and 36" rca's going to the sub amps, which are connected to the mains with a neutrix connector, which is at the end of about 20" of cable.  Now, I'm wishing my wall hardware was on the left side.  If I move the rack over, two outlets, a cable line, and a port for in-wall cables to the tv will really be an eye sore.  But I do think getting a two shelf rack that stretches farther to the side will be my next step.  And of course, trying some treatments. 

I would like to build a rack and my own treatments, but those probably need to wait until after I get to more of the projects on my wife's list


Again, I really appreciate you taking the time to walk me through ideas.  I thought 4 feet was good, and didn't think outside the box that even more distance from the front wall would change the sound.   

Side note, I find it interesting how my music sounds through a better stereo.  I have lots of cds, and I am surprised when I hear how different they sound, or how some recordings are just not good, with more revealing components. 

Ben

[Tyson]

If you are building a rack, don't build a tall one - short and wide is what you want.  Anything vertical in a rack will interfere with imaging. 

It's good you pulled the speakers toward you and toed them in a bit.  The other thing I'd rec is some acoustic panels on the side wall.  If you can cover everything from 36 inches in front of the speaker to 36 inches behind the speaker, that's ideal.  Because you have to worry about the rear wave as well as the front wave with OBs.  Rear wall treatment is far less important than side wall treatment with OBs. 

If you want something that looks nice, GIK Acoustics will make you Art Panels for a reasonable price - they can take any large digital image and put it on the panels - their dye/print process to the cloth is pretty darn good.